Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-01-31
Henry Watterson Speaks Out.

Henry WattcrsOn Speaks Out.
The following letter. from Mr.. Wattersor,
of the Louisville Courier Journal, is pub
lished:
WASHINGTON, Jan. 81.
1 look upon the democratic situation
which prevails in the national capital at
this time with kind of sorrowing amaze
ment. On every hand l encounter among
the Senators, among the Representatives,
among the people, but one sentiment, and
that is discomfort and foreboding. The re-
publicans are jubisnt, the democrats are
discouraged. The President sits with his
back upon the scene, and but yesterday
said to a friend, who thinks just as do,
II believe have done pretty well, consid-
ering."
He is the one man in Washington who is
blind to the truth and deaf to counsels
Even the Secretary of State, who has lived
most of his life in peach blow vase three
thousand miles beyond the moon, is not,
am told, wholly lost to the real state Of the
case. But there seems no help for it. A
man as incapable of receiving impressions
as of returning warmth, and sensible of crit
icism only to the point of resenting it, the
President sits in the White House like
wooden image made to be worshipped not
to be loved. To the weaker members of
his Cabinet he has impaired his dull self
sufficiency and cold stolidity. The most
servile, as well as the sncerest form of fat
terry, is imitation and the beggars on horse
back whom Mr. Cleveland seeking to dis
cover a new political planet and to people it
with creatures of his own, broughtinto being
and mounted, have caught the trick of their
chief, and are equally industrious and sue
cessful in neglecting great for little things,
and in seeing nothing clearly except the
regulations OF the civil service. They, too,
take more JOY in one republican who has
repented and turned mugwump than in
ninety and nine democrats VINO have never
gone aotray.
The other evening, after dinner where
the President met o select party of demo-
Gratis, it was proposed to hold O mock Cab
met meeting Oddly, this man Of destiny,
who has as little humor as acumen, and had
no thought Of the trap which was set TO
catch him, agreed to this. Therefore, each
member Of the company turned loose upon
him, and, in a serio comic way, gave him
the sort of talk the Courier Journal has been
giving him the last two months. He listen
ed with complacency. Finally, when the
last speaker, one Of his own political FAM
lily, had put in metaphorical knock down
right between the executive eyes. he closed
them, and, leaning back in his chair and
playing tattoo upon his ample shirt front
with his thumbs, he said. with touch
of offended dignity: Really, gentle
men, [ cannot see how 1 am to
blame for all this, or how 1 can mend it."
He then went on to say that he would be |
glad to consult with the democrats Of the
House and Senate, but that, when they
came to the White House to introduce
stranger or to endorse an applicant, they i'm
mediately went away again. They, he pro-
ceedcd to explain, had their work to do, as
he had his. and so there was no time for con-
sultation There is not the least doubt that |
he was perfectly honest in this. as he is, l |
believe. in all things else. Is it not most
and almost astounding, that
one who is by no means destitute of common
sense and native craft should be so dense?
A near and old friend of his said 20 me
not long ago "Of all the arid natures I
ever encountered, his is the most arid. He
with nobody makes common
cause with nobody and, in the most serious
affairs. trusts wholly and solely to fortune
DR. caprice" The author OF this description
nursed no disappointment, was far beyond
he reach of Presidential fear or favor, and
simply spoke in the spirit of historian
and philosopher.
The Coupon Tender Cases.